77 articles
Ranulph Fiennes
Ranulph Fiennes, born in 1944, is a British explorer who led the first circumnavigation of the Earth via both poles, 1979 to 1982, and climbed Everest at 65.
Reinhold Messner
Reinhold Messner (born 1944, Brixen, South Tyrol), Italian mountaineer; first to climb all fourteen 8,000 m peaks (1986), first Everest ascent without oxygen (1978, with Habeler), first solo Everest (1980), MEP 1999–2004, Messner Mountain Museum founder.
Rob Hall
Rob Hall (Robert Edwin Hall, 1961–1996), New Zealand mountaineer and guide, co-founded Adventure Consultants, guided 39 clients up Everest, summited five times, and died in the 1996 Everest disaster with client Doug Hansen.
Sandy Hill (mountaineer)
Sandy Hill (born 1955), formerly Sandy Hill Pittman, American socialite and mountaineer; second American woman to climb the Seven Summits; survived the 1996 Everest disaster as a Mountain Madness client.
Santosh Yadav (संतोष यादव)
Santosh Yadav (संतोष यादव), born 1967, Indian mountaineer and ITBP officer; first woman to summit Everest twice (May 1992, May 1993); led 1999 Kangshung Face expedition; Padma Shri 2000.
Scott Fischer
Scott Eugene Fischer (1956–1996), American mountaineer, first American to climb Lhotse, K2 summiteer without oxygen, and co-founder of Mountain Madness; died on Everest in the May 10, 1996 storm.
Sohail Sakhi
Sohail Sakhi, Pakistani high-altitude mountaineer from Aliabad, Hunza; summited K2, Nanga Parbat, Gasherbrum I and II, and Kangchenjunga without oxygen; co-founded Moving Mountains; killed in the July 30, 2026 Broad Peak avalanche that killed ten climbers including Nirmal Purja.
Szilárd Suhajda
Szilárd Suhajda (Suhajda Szilárd), Hungarian mountaineer (1982–2023) who climbed Broad Peak, K2, and Lhotse without oxygen and vanished near Everest's summit in May 2023.
Tejan Gurung (तेजन गुरुङ)
Tejan Gurung (तेजन गुरुङ), born 1995 in Pokhara, is a Nepali-British mountaineer, Elite Exped director, and former Army Commando. In 2024-2026 he became the youngest person to complete both the 14 eight-thousanders and the Seven Summits.
Tenzing Norgay (བསྟན་འཛིན་ནོར་རྒྱས)
Tenzing Norgay (བསྟན་འཛིན་ནོར་རྒྱས), Sherpa mountaineer of Tibetan birth, reached the 8,848 m summit of Everest with Edmund Hillary on 29 May 1953, first confirmed ascent; subject of nationality controversy and the film Tenzing.
Tommy Caldwell
Tommy Caldwell, American big-wall rock climber from Estes Park, Colorado. Made the first free ascent of the Dawn Wall on El Capitan with Kevin Jorgeson (January 2015, 19 days), the Fitz Traverse first ascent, and the Nose speed record with Alex Honnold.
Ueli Steck
Ueli Steck (1976-2017), the "Swiss Machine," was a Swiss speed alpinist who set Eiger north face records (2:47:33) and soloed Annapurna's south face in 28 hours; he died on Nuptse in 2017.
Victor Vescovo
Victor Lance Vescovo (born 1966), Dallas private equity investor and retired Navy Reserve commander; first person to dive to the deepest point of all five oceans (Five Deeps, 2018-2019) in the Limiting Factor submersible.
Wanda Rutkiewicz
Wanda Rutkiewicz (Wanda Błaszkiewicz), Polish mountaineer, 1943–1992: first European woman and Pole on Everest (1978), first woman on K2 (1986), climbed eight 8000ers, died on Kangchenjunga.
Will Stanhope
Will Stanhope (1986–2026), Canadian rock climber and ACMG guide from Squamish, known for Cobra Crack, The Prophet, Tom Egan Memorial Route, and free solos; died after a fall on Rutabaga, Stawamus Chief.
Yasuko Namba (難波 康子)
Yasuko Namba (難波 康子) was a Japanese mountaineer and Federal Express accountant who completed the Seven Summits and died descending Everest in the storm of May 1996.
Yvon Chouinard
Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia founder, American climber-blacksmith born 1938 in Lisbon, Maine; founded Chouinard Equipment 1957 and Patagonia 1973; gave the $3 billion company to the Patagonia Purpose Trust and Holdfast Collective in 2022.